South Korea says North stole cryptocurrency worth billions of won last year

South Korea said on Monday that North Korea last year stole cryptocurrency from the South worth billions of won and that it was still trying to hack into its exchanges.

“North Korea sent emails that could hack into cryptocurrency exchanges and their customers’ private information and stole (cryptocurrency) worth billions of won,” said Kim Byung-kee, a member of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee.

To put “billions” in perspective, 1 billion won equals $917,400.

Kim did not disclose which exchanges were hacked.

He added that the country’s spy agency assumed that North Korea was continuously trying to hack into exchanges to steal cryptocurrency and that it was trying its best to prevent further hacking.